Asbestos companies hid the danger for decades
Internal documents reveal that the asbestos industry knew long ago that its products were killing people. It did nothing.
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Romans discovered asbestos dangers
Romans made connection between asbestos and health problems
London doctor blamed asbestos for worker's death
London physician found asbestos fibers in lungs of asbestos textile factory employee who died at age 33 from severe pulmonary fibrosis.
Labor Department noted that asbestos workers were dying young
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published report noting unusual early deaths of asbestos workers.
Aetna Insurance said asbestosis is "incurable"
Aetna Insurance's Attorney's Textbook of Medicine devoted a chapter to asbestos exposure, saying that asbestosis was "incurable" and usually resulted in disability followed by death.
Industry document warned that asbestos-based insulation caused asbestosis
Industry document forewarns, "... since Kaylo [brand insulation] is capable of producing asbestosis, it is better to discover it now in animals rather than later in industrial workers."
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Exxon knew that asbestos caused lung cancer
An internal Exxon memo marked “Company Confidential” documents lung cancer from asbestos.
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National Gypsum memo warned that inhaling asbestos caused asbestosis
National Gypsum Co. Inter-office memo said, "Just as certain as death and taxes ... if you inhale asbestos dust you get asbestosis."
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A Bendix memo said that workers who worked with asbestos might "die from it"
A Bendix (now part of Honeywell) memo said, "If you have enjoyed a good life while working with asbestos products why not die from it."
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Industry called selling asbestos "unethical"
An internal asbestos industry memo said: "Stay unscrupulous, unethical, mean, and selling Mono-Kote [asbestos products]."
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Union Carbide defied federal regulators
A Union Carbide memo urged "aggressiveness" when handling inquiries from customers about OSHA regulations.
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Industry expert estimated 25,000 employee deaths from asbestos
An asbestos industry expert predicted that about. 25,000 past and present employees would die of asbestos-related diseases, "“and the good news is that despite all the negative articles on asbestos-health that have appeared in the press over the past half-dozen years, very few people have been paying attention."
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Industry memo said protecting workers was too expensive
Internal memo documents debate whether to protect workers: "the drawback of course is several pennies cost."
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Insurance industry denied asbestosis claims
Insurance industry's "discussion group on asbestosis" unanimously decided not to admit liability, and discussed defense strategies.
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Pfizer knew about asbestos in its talc
Pfizer, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, advised companies buying its talc that asbestos was risky and that workers should take precautions when working with talc. In a letter to Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Pfizer explained that while it had no way to control the conditions of use of its talc products at Goodyear’s plants, it could “provide information on the asbestiform mineral contents of the talc [it] supplies.” Pfizer claimed that it had “developed the most accurate and sensitive method available today for analyzing asbestos and asbestiform minerals in talc.” It reported the amount of asbestos it had found in the California CP, Montana MP, and California CF talc that it sold to Goodyear. Pfizer later denied that it sold talc that contained asbestos.
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Babcock & Wilcox hid asbestos dangers from employees
A memo written by T.L. Wharton, a facilities manager at Babcock and Wilcox, a company that designs, engineers and manufactures boilers and other power generation equipment, acknowledged that the company was aware it was violating standards set by the federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration to limit worker exposure to asbestos fibers. The company decided to investigate the problem but not to warn workers who were being exposed to asbestos fibers. Instead, Wharton wrote, “The investigation is going to be handled as discreetly as possible. It is a concern of the meeting attendees that a labor violation such as a walkout or an OSHA citation would be forthcoming if the hourly labor force was aware of the apparent danger of asbestos exposure.” “As the situation stands right now,” he added, “no one in the meeting wants the warning signs posted at this time. Readings of the dust and suspected carcinogen concentrations will not be taken until the alternatives and solutions are examined.”
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Dow memo acknowledged, "We are in trouble"
A handwritten note on an internal Dow memo reads, "We are in trouble, and would be more so if we had an investigation. We need a crash program."
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BASF Subsidiary Engelhard denied knowing asbestos was in its talc
Glenn A. Hemstock, a member of the research and development department at Engelhard Corp., a mineral, chemical, and metal processing corporation later acquired by BASF LLC, was deposed in a case that charged that talc mined by the company was contaminated with asbestos. He denied knowing that analyses of talc samples at Engelhard’s Johnson Mine had detected high levels of chrysotile asbestos.
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Engelhard destroyed records proving asbestos in its talc
Engelhard stopped mining and selling talc. Hemstock wrote a memo ordering that all materials related to the talc business be collected and discarded.
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Industry memo admitted that industry documents contained "evidence of corporate conspiracy"
An internal memo chronicled damaging industry documents dating to 1934, concluding that "the plaintiffs' bar will probably take the position - not unreasonably - that the documents are evidence of a corporate conspiracy to prevent asbestos workers from learning that their exposure to asbestos could kill them." One Manville Corp. employee was advised by a company lawyer to hire his own lawyer because he could be indicted for manslaughter.
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The EPA tried to ban asbestos
After a ten-year study, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a regulation a under the Toxic Substances Control Act prohibiting the manufacture, import, processing and distribution of asbestos and virtually all asbestos-containing products. The EPA said that “asbestos is a human carcinogen and one of the most hazardous substances to which humans are exposed.”
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Engelhard claimed its talc was absestos-free
William H. Ashton, an expert witness for Engelhard Corporation, said in a sworn affidavit that “from the 1940s through the 1980s, talc mined in Vermont and specifically, the talc mined by Engelhard Corporation (and its predecessors) . . . has been considered to be talc free from contamination by asbestos.” Engelhard and its successor BASF used this affidavit in thousands of lawsuits as evidence that it did not produce asbestos-containing talc and successfully pressured hundreds of victims of asbestos-related diseases to drop their cases against Engelhard.
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Court overturned EPA asbestos ban
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated most of the EPA’s ban on asbestos. Although the court acknowledged that “asbestos is a potential carcinogen at all levels of exposure,” it found that EPA did not present the “substantial evidence” required to justify the ban. It said that by banning asbestos, the EPA failed to impose “the least burdensome” means of eliminating “unreasonable risk” of exposure to asbestos, as required by Toxic Substances Control Act.
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Dr. Victor Roggli said brake mechanics risked mesothelioma
Victor Roggli, M.D., a physician specializing in pathology and asbestos-related diseases, co-authored a paper in Ultrastructural Pathology demonstrating, among other things, that brake mechanics had an increased incidence of pleural plaque in the lungs, which placed them at an increased risk for mesothelioma. The paper said that asbestos fibers were present in the lungs of brake workers at higher levels than would be found in the ordinary population.
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Roggli reversed position while consulting for Honeywell
Roggli reversed his position, writing in a 2003 paper published in Annals of Occupational Hygiene that brake mechanics did not exhibit a greater accumulation of asbestos fibers in their lungs than found in the general population. He did not acknowledge the change in position and did not disclose that he was being paid at the time as a testifying and consulting expert for Honeywell in asbestos litigation against the company brought by former brake mechanics.
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Former Bondo employees said company used asbestos-tainted talc
Two former employees of the Bondo Corporation, which manufactured auto body repair products and was acquired by 3M Corporation in 2007, testified that between 1960 and 1983 Bondo purchased all of its talc from Engelhard Corporation’s Vermont talc mine. That talc was contaminated with asbestos. 3M would later claim that it purchased talc from sources other than Engelhard during that time period.
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Georgia-Pacific gave scientist new post to downplay asbestos risks
Georgia-Pacific LLC recruited Stewart Holm, then director of toxicology and chemical management at Georgia-Pacific, for a new position to be “specially employed to perform expert consulting services in connection with pending and anticipated litigation concerning alleged exposure to asbestos.” Holm was to study the harms of chrysotile asbestos, and his work was to be “directed solely by GP’s in-house counsel.”
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Georgia-Pacific commissioned experts to deny asbestos risk
An article on chrysotile asbestos authored by David M. Berstein and John A. Hoskins, two of Georgia-Pacific’s commissioned researchers, and published in Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology concluded that “low exposures to pure chrysotile do not present a detectable risk to health” and that “the risk of an adverse outcome may be low if even any high exposures experienced were of short duration.”
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Attorney for BASF subsidiaries denied talc contained asbestos
Jennifer Riester, an attorney representing Eastern Magnesia Talc Company and Engelhard, both subsidiaries of BASF, wrote a letter to John Mismas, an attorney representing victims of asbestos-related diseases. She asked Mismas to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuits he brought against Eastern Magnesia and Engelhard “on the basis that the talc produced by [Eastern Magnesia and Engelhard] contained no asbestos.” She pointed out that more than 500 claimants in six different states dropped their cases after seeing the 1989 Ashton affidavit.
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Scientistes testifies to Engelhard talc asbestos contamination
David Swanson, a research scientist retired from Engelhard, testified in a sworn deposition that the company’s talc contained asbestos and that he had been instructed to purge his files of references to talc. His testimony contradicted the 1989 affidavit by William H. Ashton attesting that no asbestos had been found in the company’s talc.
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Journal rejected Georgia-Pacific research paper
The scientific journal Toxicological Sciences rejected a Georgia-Pacific-sponsored study by David M. Bernstein comparing pathological responses in the lungs to chrysotile asbestos in a commercial product and to pure amosite asbestos. The paper asserted that exposure to the commercial product with chrysotile asbestos was less toxic than exposure to amosite asbestos. It also suggested that exposure to chrysotile asbestos in the commercial product would not affect the part of the lungs where mesothelioma forms. According to the comments forwarded to Bernstein by Lois D. Lehman-McKeeman, Ph.D., then editor-in-chief of Toxicological Sciences, one peer reviewer wrote that “the report will be helpful for those wanting to use or sell the commercial product (if such people still exist); otherwise there is little new information provided by the paper.”
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Georgia-Pacific researcher admitted company support
Stewart Holm wrote to the scientific journal Inhalation Toxicology to say that four articles he had co-authored, all published by the journal between 2008 and 2011, had inadequate disclosures. In one case, the article disclosed only that the research was funded by Georgia-Pacific and that Georgia-Pacific had been involved in litigation related to joint compound. The other three articles merely stated that the research on which they were based was funded by a grant from Georgia-Pacific. Holm made clear that Georgia-Pacific went beyond funding the research. In fact, he said, the company commissioned the research specifically to address issues that had arisen in asbestos litigation. Holm said that he was a representative of Georgia-Pacific and his co-authors were all consulting experts retained by Georgia-Pacific to conduct the research or prepare the articles. The authors’ ties to Georgia-Pacific also had not been disclosed when the articles were published.
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Court ordered Georgia-Pacific to produce asbestos research documents
Special Master Laraine Pacheco, a judge handling pre-trial discovery issues in a lawsuit against Georgia-Pacific, ordered the company to produce documents detailing its commissioned research on asbestos. The documents, Pachecho said, “should have been produced five years ago.”
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Court found John Crane Co. destroyed asbestos sales records
A Georgia court concluded that the John Crane Company, a manufacturer of gaskets, mechanical seals, couplings, hydro-dynamic bearings and seal support systems, destroyed important evidence in a wrongful death civil suit brought by the family of a worker exposed to asbestos at the Mahrt Mill, where he worked. The court found that John Crane had destroyed all records showing that it had sold products containing asbestos to Mahrt Mill from 1977 to 1985.
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Roggli denied link between asbestos brakes exposure and disease
Roggli wrote a letter to Ivan A. Gustafson of Every, Weatherby, & Houff, a law firm that represented asbestos defendants, stating that “epidemiological studies have failed to demonstrate an association between exposure to friction products and the subsequent development of mesothelioma.”
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Journal apologized for failure to disclose corporate funding of asbestos research
The journal Inhalation Toxicology apologized to its readers for failing to disclose that four articles co-authored by Stewart Holm and published by the journal were based on research commissioned by Georgia-Pacific to address issues that had arisen in asbestos litigation.
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3M denied that Bondo subsidiary bought asbestos-contaminated talc
Sheik Abdul Razzak was 3M Corporation’s designated corporate representative in a mesothelioma case brought by a plaintiff exposed to asbestos in heavyweight automotive body filler made by Bondo Corp., a subsidiary of 3M. Razzak testified in a deposition that Bondo purchased talc from two sources during the 1960s and 1970s: Engelhard and the Vermont Talc Company. Engelhard talc had been proved to be contaminated by asbestos, but Vermont Talc had not. The effect of this testimony was to cast doubt on whether the plaintiff was exposed to asbestos via 3M products. It conflicted with the 2004 testimony of former Bondo employees Charles Duggar and Phillip Price in a separate lawsuit. These witnesses said that all the talc 3M purchased between 1960 and 1983 came from Engelhard mines.
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Crane Company admitted destroying evidence
Crane Company admitted to destroying important evidence about its use of asbestos. When Crane Company was sued in mesothelioma litigation, Anthony Pantaleoni, its designated corporate representative for asbestos litigation, met with company engineers and former employees to discuss the company’s past use of asbestos and took extensive notes. Though aware he would be questioned during the litigation, he testified that he had thrown out his notes because he “didn’t see any reason to keep them.”
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CompuDyne leaked memo detailing asbestos use
An Ohio Court ordered CompuDyne, Inc. to turn over an internal analysis of its past uses of asbestos that Scott Henry, CompuDyne’s national coordinating counsel, created in preparation for asbestos litigation. CompuDyne had accidentally leaked this analysis during pre-trial discovery in a case brought by a mesothelioma victim who in 1980 and 1981 serviced and repaired boilers made by York Shipley, a CompuDyne subsidiary. CompuDyne, a financial holding company with no employees, claimed at trial that “there was no living person with sufficient knowledge of CompuDyne’s corporate history to affirm, deny, or explain the relationship between CompuDyne and York-Shipley or the presence of asbestos in York-Shipley boilers.” However, Henry’s leaked analysis revealed that York Shipley used asbestos in its products.
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Georgia-Pacific denied it sold asbestos-laden joint compound
A victim of mesothelioma sued Georgia-Pacific on grounds he had bought asbestos-laden joint compound made by Georgia-Pacific at a Tucson lumber store in 1971 and 1972. In that case, Georgia-Pacific repeatedly denied that it sold joint compound to that store. However, in a separate lawsuit against Georgia-Pacific in California, the company produced records that showed that it had sold the joint compound product to the Tucson hardware store at the time the victim bought it.
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Kazakh official denied asbestos dangers
Asbestos production and consumption continued to grow in the developing world and the global asbestos lobby continued to argue that use of chrysotile asbestos is safe. Kanat Kapbayel of Kazakhstan's United Minerals and a board member of the International Chrysotile Association, claimed, “Chrysotile you can eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner!”
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Kentucky judge upheld punitive damages against Garlock Sealing Technologies
A Kentucky appellate judge upheld a $600,000 punitive damages award against Garlock Sealing Technologies, a company that manufactures gaskets, for failing to warn pipefitters that handling asbestos was dangerous. The judge’s opinion concluded that “Garlock’s gaskets contained asbestos and by the 1940s Garlock knew that asbestos exposure was linked to cancer. Further, Garlock knew the end-user of the gasket may have to grind the gasket to remove it, yet Garlock did not put warnings on its asbestos-containing gaskets until 1977.” The court found that the company’s actions constituted a “reckless disregard for the health and safety of the pipefitters grinding and removing the gaskets.”
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Pecora Corp. ordered to pay $1 m for failing to warn employees of asbestos risks
A New Jersey jury assessed $1 million in punitive damages against Pecora Corporation, a company that manufactures sealants and coatings. The evidence showed that a supplier had warned Pecora officials that asbestos was dangerous and that the company received asbestos in bags with printed warnings. Despite those risks, Pecora did not take precautions to protect its employees or warn them of the dangers of asbestos.
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Five people sent to prison for environmental crimes
U.S. District Court Judge Ronnie Greer in Greenville, Tenn., sentenced five managers and operators of A&E Salvage to prison sentences ranging from six months to five years in prison for criminally conspiring to violate the federal Clean Air Act by exposing workers to asbestos. The defendants were fined $10.4 million. According to the federal indictment in the case, the five men engaged in a multi-year scheme to remove asbestos from the Liberty Fibers Plant in Hamblen County, Tenn., without providing workers the necessary protective equipment.
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